Inspiration for a joyful and creative life

Remember when you were a kid and there was something so scary about the dark?

You were afraid there might be monsters under the bed or in the closet.  It felt so real.  Your body tensed and you feared the unknown.

Somehow when the light was turned on, or in the light of day, the monsters in your imagination would recede and lose their power to hurt you.

The movie, Monsters, Inc. is a charming, animated tale that shows the monsters in the light of day as goofy, charming, caring, and sometimes frightened themselves.

Our emotions can be like these monsters.  When we hide them, ignore them, or push them into the dark corners of our mind, they become much bigger than life and raise the fear factor.

We’re afraid of what might happen and often the fear is much bigger than the reality.

Shining some light and bring the emotions out where we can see them, feel them, and release them can make them seem less frightening and mysterious.

I’ll admit that it is going to take a lot of practice for me because of a lifelong habit to put my emotions in a closet and double bolt the door.  I figured if I ignored them, they would leave.

In the Attraction Distraction by Sonia Miller, she says, “Emotions are healthy and all emotions are completely ok.  They are simply energy passing through your body and need to be released so your soul can speak to you.”

What a lovely way of putting it.  I believe that is true and the more we listen to our instincts, the signals from our body, and shine a light on the feelings we’ve hid in the dark, the less we’ll live and act in fear.

The book that I am reading now, and more importantly, doing the exercises, is The Sedona Method by Hale Dwoskin.

I am really enjoying the simple and effective methods that help release emotions, both old and new.

It’s like having a flash light to see there is nothing to be afraid of, it’s going to be ok.

Mark Twain may have said it best ;

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Have you ever considered what it is costing you to avoid doing what you really want? Procrastination is hard work.

It takes an enormous amount of energy to worry and feel like you should be getting to something but you aren’t.

It is hard work NOT to do anything and it can be harder than taking those small, small steps and realizing your worst fears.

Procrastination is a form of escape that tricks you into thinking you are avoiding danger, even if it is an unconscious decision. The truth is it is like invisible handcuffs that keep you trapped by disappointment in yourself.

Usually the fears are what stop you in the first place. See if any of these ring a bell for you:

• Too many goals
• Fear of failure or making a mistake
• Fear of success….and maybe that will lead to too much work

I’ve personally experienced all of the above. I will probably always have more things I want to do than is humanly possible. But that is just part of my nature.

What I finally started to understand is that choosing one or two goals to fully commit to and take action on is so much easier than worry about if it is the right decision or how it will turn out.

It doesn’t mean that I never worry but since that doesn’t EVER make anything easier or better, I try to keep it to a minimum.

And the biggest antidote to procrastination and worry is taking action with small steps.

Your Worst Fears Realized

Let’s take the above examples and show you that even if your fears are realized, you are still better off trying.

Too Many Goals – If you never choose something, anything to try, you’ll be stuck in the never ending cycle of feeling like you’ve failed.

It is better to pick something and try it and if you decide it’s not for you, luckily you have a lot more ideas where they came from!

Fear of Failure or Making a Mistake – If you fail, if you make a mistake, hey join the party! If you are not failing at least occasionally, you aren’t challenging yourself.

Everyone learns from their mistakes and no one is perfect. Do you know how many successful businesses and people failed before they succeeded? Probably about 99.7%. The rest just got lucky. Cut yourself some slack and go make some mistakes!

Fear of Success – You may worry that if you succeed, it will be too much work or that people will raise their expectations of you and you won’t be able to keep up.

I remember hearing Barbara Winter talking about people worrying about problems they don’t even have yet. She said when you solve one set of problems, you get to upgrade to better ones.

In other words, you can cross that bridge when you come to it. There are solutions to every problem and you do have choices. You can always change what you are doing or even stop.

Take an Empowering Step

Don’t beat yourself up about procrastinating. We all do it at one time or another.

Instead of punishing yourself and feeling like you’ve failed already or you are not living up to your expectations, make a positive choice.

While it will take effort, commitment, and work to complete your goal, I really believe it will be less demanding and draining than the unfulfilled weight of procrastination.

The only way to stop feeling the fear is to face it, to move through it. So take a small step. Just one. And then another and another…….